Magnum: The Body Observed

The iconography of the body has been a recurrent subject throughout the history of art. The advent and development of photography offered a new opportunity to engage with past modes of representation through a medium that could mimic or subvert pre-existing visual codes in order to establish its own language. The camera has been used to examine, categorise, scrutinise and objectify the body.

The Body Observed proposes to look at how Magnum photographers have turned their lens to the body, presenting works that explore issues such as gaze, identity, intimacy, sexuality, ritual, voyeurism or performance, among others. It will draw into focus the social and cultural structures that affect the representation of the human form.